The NSF-funded, biannual Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RE3) Workshop is organized by UofL's Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research. Participation is encouraged from faculty, students, and staff of universities and institutes, business/corporate partners, national laboratories and entrepreneurs across the nation as well as local and regional high schools and junior colleges. The workshop encourages, strengthens, and creates partnerships among stakeholders at the state, region and national arenas, forging connections and fostering innovation and intellectual exchange among academic, small businesses and entrepreneurial start-ups and mature industrial partners.

The 2017 RE3 Workshop features presentations by speakers from universities, businesses, national laboratories, and funding agencies on the latest technical discoveries and thematic priorities for renewable energy and efficiency in the following key areas: Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus, Materials and Process Innovation, and Materials and Energy Entrepreneurship. Plenary lectures will focus on the grand challenges facing the FEW Nexus, with particular emphasis around how clean energy research can link the necessary science to push the scientific boundaries of the nexus further.

The workshop will be divided into three topical tracks that will be the focus of afternoon sessions of invited and submitted talks: clean energy-food, clean energy-water and clean energy-entrepreneurship.

In addition to plenary lectures and presentations, short educational courses for students, faculty, and industry are offered as a prelude to the kickoff for the workshop, including: 1) Materials Discovery and Advanced Materials Characterization; 2) Additive Manufacturing, Biogas production and Combined Heat & Power, 3) The Next Step: Technical Entrepreneurship in the Materials and Energy Sector.

A key outcome is enabling students, and researchers in academia, government and industry in energy-related fields and disciplines to increase national research competitiveness and viable renewable energy technology transfer and commercialization offerings.

The workshop agenda also features a poster session and formal and informal networking opportunities in addition to the short courses, presentations and product demonstrations. Conference talks will be presented as papers as a special online issue of ACS Energy Letters.